Archive for the ‘NiCd/NiMH Batteries’ Category

The 1.2V AAA 950 mAh Sanyo Eneloop XX NiMH batteries are of the third generation of Eneloop batteries from Sanyo and are the model designed for powering high current consuming devices such as photo strobe flash lights, wireless keyboards, mice, game controllers, radio controlled toys and a range of household devices. Eneloop XX is the preferred battery by many photographers for powering their photo flashes and other photographic equipment and even on the batteries you can see written “High capacity eneloop for professional use”. The Eneloop XX series is also from the Low Self Discharge type NiMH batteries and can retain up to 85% percent of its capacity after an year of storage, but these batteries are designed to offer up to 500 recharge cycles mostly due to the fact that they are designed to handle higher loads unlike the standard low-to moderate loads and up to 1800 recharge cycles for the standard Eneloop batteries. These Sanyo Eneloop XX batteries come with a typical capacity of 950 mAh, but their minimum guaranteed one is 900 mAh and on their packaging you can only see the minimum and not the typical capacity written, though they are sold as 950 mAh. They come pre-charged with 50% of their capacity and our measurement for the initial discharge provided between 395 and 401 mAh which is pretty much within the 85% for batteries made in 12-2012, but let us see how they will perform fully charged.

Starting the tests of the 1.2V AAA 950 mAh Sanyo Eneloop XX NiMH batteries with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A got us 925 mAh as useable capacity or withing the range between the minimum guaranteed and the typical rating of the batteries. We are used to seen such results from Sanyo with low current loads, but the Eneloop XX batteries are supposed to really shine when they are stressed with higher power requirements. And when increasing the constant current load to 0.2A and 0.5A they still manage to perform great, even at 1.0A they manage to perform really well. These Sanyo Eneloop XX batteries really do great job in providing what is advertised, and though they are not the best performing NiMH batteries in general that we’ve tested, they still do a great job for a high-capacity LSD NiMH solution.

The 1.2V AA 2000 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries are of the third generation of Eneloop batteries from Sanyo and offer some really impressive features making the competition seem inferior in all aspects besides the capacity, even though 2000 mAh is still a good rating for an LSD (low self discharge) NiMH battery. Sanyo claims that these Eneloop batteries are capable of being recharged up to 1800 times and that they are able to retain 90% of their capacity if only stored and not being used and up to 70% of their charge after 5 years of storage. Another interesting fact about these AA batteries is that on their package you can find only a minimum rating of 1900 mAh, but nothing about their typical capacity of 2000 mAh written, though that information is available on Sanyo’s website. These batteries are supposed to come pre-charged at 75% of their capacity and ready to be used, the ones we tested were manufactured in 11-2012 and we have measured the initial available capacity between 1410 and 1420 mAh or pretty much within the 10% (a bit less actually) discharge for about a year since they were manufactured. And now it is time to move to the other tests…

Starting the tests of the 1.2V AA 2000 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.2A got us 1927 mAh as useable capacity or withing the range between the minimum guaranteed and the typical rating of the batteries. Increasing the constant current discharge rate from that point on gives really impressive results in terms of useable capacity and even at 2.0A the result is very good, though for applications requiring such higher power requirements you might want to consider going for the Eneloop XX batteries instead as Sanyo has designed them especially for higher load applications. In overall great performance from the 1.2V AA 2000 mAh Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries as we expected, so next up for testing come the Eneloop XX LSD NiMH batteries.

The 1.2V AAA 800 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries are of the third generation of Eneloop batteries from Sanyo and offer some really impressive features making the competition seem inferior in all aspects besides the capacity, even though 800 mAh is still a good rating for an LSD (low self discharge) NiMH battery. Sanyo claims that these Eneloop batteries are capable of being recharged up to 1800 times and that they are able to retain 90% of their capacity if only stored and not being used and up to 70% of their charge after 5 years of storage – definitely impressive. Another interesting fact about these AAA batteries is that on their package you can find a minimum rating of 750 mAh, but nothing about their typical capacity of 800 mAh written, though they are being sold as 800 mAh and that information is available on Sanyo’s website. These batteries are supposed to come pre-charged at 75% of their capacity and ready to be used, the ones we tested were manufactured in 10-2012 and we have measured the initial available capacity between 526 and 532 mAh or pretty much within the 10% discharge for a bit over than a year since they are manufactured, and now for the other tests…

Starting the tests of the 1.2V AAA 800 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A got us 872 mAh as useable capacity or almost 10% more than the typical rating of the batteries, so a great result. at a constant current discharge rate of 0.2A the batteries still manage to provide 750 mAh or the minimum guaranteed capacity rating and going higher at 0.5A the result is still great in terms of available capacity. Going for 1.0A however shows that these batteries are not doing that good, so they are not that suitable for very high power applications. In fact Sanyo has another series of batteries called Eneloop XX that is designed to handle better higher loads than the standard Sanyo batteries that are optimized more for longer use with lower power requirements.